James Smillie
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| James Smilie | |
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| Born | 1944 (age 64–65) Scotland |
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| Other name(s) | James Smilie, Jim Smillie, Jim Smilie |
| Spouse(s) | Caroline Smillie (nee Lea) |
James Smilie (born 1944 in Scotland) emigrated from the Glasgow tenements, carving out a career in Australia before returning to the United Kingdom to star in London's West End. A dynamic and versatile leading man, he has played the starring role in Kiss Me, Kate at the Old Vic for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is known internationally as Dr. Dan Marshall, the bearded plastic surgeon from the television series Return to Eden.[1]
Television drama and light entertainment shows were interwoven with stage plays, among them: Orin in Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra; Chance Williams in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth; Eilif in Mother Courage and Her Children; Tom Jones in Tom Jones; the children's television series Crackerjack and Adventure Island. His own show I Like Music helped to make him one of Australia's best known and most respected performers.[citation needed]
In 1972, he left for London to play Tony in West Side Story. The following years saw him playing leading men in a string of West End productions, notably: an Italian Lothario in Brian Clemens' whodunit Lover (Ambassadors Theatre); Henry II, who martyred Thomas Becket in Thomas and The King (Her Majestys); Dr. Thomas Barnardo, responsible for saving homeless children in Victorian London, in Barnardo (Royalty); Nicos, the English teacher, in Zorba; Georges, opposite Georges Hearn in La Cage aux Folles (London Palladium); and ultimately his "tour de force" as Fred Graham in 'Kiss Me Kate' (RSC Savoy) - Smilie has played this role on three occasions, most recently on tour in 1991/92.
Following this, he toured in George Bernard Shaw's Candida as the Reverend James Mavor Morrell, which Val May directed. He has worked extensively on television and film; with Anthony Hopkins in International Velvet, John Huston in The Jaguar Lives, more recently in The Junction Boys with Tom Berenger. Smilie's leading television roles include: Dial M for Murder, Space 1999, Thriller, The Gentle Touch, Skin Deep, Comedy Playhouse, The Mackinnons, Red Dwarf and Highlander: The Series. Numerous appearances in a variety of light entertainment shows from Highway with Sir Harry Secombe to An Evening with Barry Humphries, the BBC series Battle of the Sexes and A Tribute to Robbie Burns for Scottish television.
Smilie has four Royal Variety Performances to his credit.[citation needed] He is also a regular radio and concert broadcaster for the BBC, particularly on the popular series Friday Night is Music Night, on special occasions such as Sondheim on the South Bank, An Evening with Cole Porter at the Royal Festival Hall, and as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican Centre. Smilie also is a voice-over artist on commercials, audiovisuals, documentaries, and talking books. He was heard playing Satan in a dramatised version of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost.
In 35 years since he left Australia, Smilie has returned on several occasions for concert and personal appearances. He has appeared in 26 early episodes of The Prisoner, as Emile de Beque in South Pacific, and as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Followed by his success as Mack Sennet in the 1996 London production of Mack & Mabel, Smilie recorded the part of Fred/Petruchio yet again in the full live production of 'Kiss Me Kate' for the BBC in London with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
1998/99 and 2000 saw Smilie touring England in the UK Productions tour of 42nd Street, playing the lead role of producer Julian Marsh. In 2001 Smlie traveled to Australia to play Pastor Manders in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts for the Perth International Arts Festival. In 2003, Smilie returned to the UK to play Charles in Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together at the Library Theatre of Manchester. This was followed in 2004 by Daddy Warbucks in a touring production of Annie with Su Pollard and Caesar in a Sadlers Wells Lost Musicals production of Harold Rome, Joshua Logan and S. N. Behrman's Fanny. In 2005, Smilie appeared in two films in Germany: Dark Ride and Rich Girl, Poor Girl. Smilie is currently living in Australia performing voice-overs and commentaries on a regular basis.
[edit] References
- ^ Super Aussie Soaps, Andrew Mercado, p243, 2004, ISBN 1864031913, accessed January 2008
